Internal BLM memo recommends killing sick wild horses on range

(OPB) An internal memo has surfaced that shows the U.S. government’s wild horse program is in dire financial trouble. It also calls for “drastic changes” including the possibility of killing sick horses on the range.

In August last year, Joan Guilfoyle called for an immediate halt to all roundups.

That’s something independent scientists called for last summer. This is the first time the public has learned that someone at Bureau of Land Management agreed.

Guilfoyle is not just anybody. She’s in charge of the BLM’s wild horse division.

The halt to roundups is one of several recommendations revealed because a wild horse advocate sought documents under the Freedom of Information Act.

Debbie Coffey, Vice President of the Wild Horse Freedom Foundation, says the BLM sent her two versions of the memo, one with large sections blacked out. But a duplicate titled “Internal Working Document” were completely uncensored. She thinks BLM goofed.

"I saw they had given me an un-redacted version as well," says Coffey. "So, just for fun, I decided to post that and let the public know what’s really going on."

Coffey is most troubled by one of Guilfoyle’s proposals.

In the memo, the division chief recommends that BLM should euthanize horses on the range “as an act of mercy if animals decline to near-death condition as a result of declining water and forage resources.”

Coffey says, "Suddenly they’re going to kill off the wild horses because there’s a man-made drought cause by the BLM’s own mismanagement of our public lands. They need to rethink how they’re managing public land if they can’t sustain wild horses they have a mandate to protect."

Coffey blames BLM for allowing other users of public land to use up so much water, leaving little for wildlife including horses.

The BLM has said in the past it is legally required to manage public land for multiple uses.

Oregon’s BLM wild horse officials referred our questions about the memo to the Washington DC office, which did not respond.